It is known to use tank containments and heating equipment to store, heat, and separate fluids, such as hydraulic well fracturing (fracing) fluid, water, and others, to be used for well fracturing applications. This storage and heating is often done on a lease site, although the tank containments and heating equipment can be portable. It would be understood by one skilled in the art, and known in the prior art, that a single site can include a geographical location where a number of oil extraction facilities and related equipment are present, along with natural gas extraction surface production facilities, which are designed to capture or contain natural gas. It would be understood by one skilled in the art, and known in the prior art, that a single site can include, using the terminology of the Dominion Land Survey system used in Western Canada, a number of nearby legal subdivisions within the same township or adjacent townships, where fuel is required to be brought in by truck, or other vehicular transport, from a different site.
Existing frac water heating units consume large amounts of fuel (for example, propane or diesel) utilized in the burner system to heat large amounts of water for the use in the well hydraulic fracturing process. This in turn, can incur great expense to the oil and gas companies in the purchase and cartage of the diesel and propane fuel source in the heating process. In addition, this also results in an undesired, increased, carbon footprint.
Super Heaters™ and hot oil units, as are known in the art, can cost producers $15,000 to $20,000 per day or more in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and/or diesel consumption and cartage costs.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide apparatuses and methods for heating an on-site fluid that can overcome the short-comings of the prior art, in particular to ameliorate the need to purchase and transport large amounts of propane or diesel used to supply fuel to the frac water heating units and to save oil and gas companies up to $20,000 per day.